NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – May 15, 2026
The Golden Knights advance to the Western Conference Final, the Canadiens rally to push the Sabres to the brink of elimination, reaction to the Oilers firing Kris Knoblauch, and more in today’s NHL Morning Coffee Headlines.
RECAPPING THURSDAY’S PLAYOFF ACTION
NHL.COM: The Vegas Golden Knights advanced to the Western Conference Final after defeating the Anaheim Ducks 5-1 in Game 6 of their second-round series. Pavel Dorofeyev scored two goals, and Mitch Marner had two points (including a highlight-reel game-opening goal) for the Golden Knights, who took the series in six games. Mikael Granlund replied for the Ducks.
The Golden Knights will face the Colorado Avalanche in the Western Conference Final starting on Wednesday, May 20, in Denver.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Golden Knights’ experience and defensive play made the difference in this series. Marner played a key role during this series, playing his way into early Conn Smythe Trophy contention with his playoff-leading 18 points. Dorofeyev has come into his own as a postseason sniper with nine goals to lead all scorers thus far.
The Ducks’ season is over, but they exceeded expectations this season by ending their seven-year playoff drought and upsetting the Edmonton Oilers in the first round. Their young roster has a bright future and will be better in the coming years.
Montreal Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki (NHL Images).
Montreal Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki had a goal and two assists to lead his club to a 6-3 victory over the Buffalo Sabres in Game 5 of their second-round series. Ivan Demidov scored his first career NHL playoff goal, Cole Caufield extended his goal streak to three games, and Juraj Slafkovsky collected three assists as the Canadiens overcame 1-0, 2-1, and 3-2 deficits. Jason Zucker, Josh Doan, and Konsta Helenius scored for the Sabres.
The Canadiens hold a 3-2 series lead and can wrap it up in Game 6 in Montreal on Saturday.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: That first period was a wild one, with Montreal goaltender Jakub Dobes giving up three goals on four shots. Canadiens head coach Martin St. Louis asked goalie coach Marco Marciano if he felt Dobes should be pulled, but Marciano said no. Dobes settled down, stopping the next 32 shots for the win. Habs defenseman Lane Hutson set up two goals, tying him with Suzuki for the team’s points lead with 12.
Buffalo goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen gave up five goals on 23 shots and was replaced by Alex Lyon for the third period. Neither goalie was helped by their teammates’ poor defense, especially in the second period, when Montreal tallied three unanswered goals to take control of the game. Meanwhile, Sabres power forward Alex Tuch has been held scoreless in this series after tallying seven points in six games against the Boston Bruins in the first round.
HEADLINES
TSN: The Edmonton Oilers fired head coach Kris Knoblauch on Thursday. He’d been in the position for three seasons, coaching the Oilers to back-to-back Stanley Cup Final appearances in 2023-24 and 2024-25. However, the Oilers were eliminated in the opening round of this year’s playoffs by the Anaheim Ducks. He was about to start a three-year contract extension worth $7.5 million.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Oilers were roasted on social media for their bungled handling of this situation. Everyone knew earlier this week that Knoblauch was a goner after it emerged that they sought permission from the Vegas Golden Knights to speak with their former bench boss, Bruce Cassidy.
David Staples of the Edmonton Journal listed 13 factors behind Knoblauch’s dismissal. In my opinion, he’s paying the price for the mistakes of Oilers management over the last two years.
The question now is who becomes Knobluach’s replacement. It’s believed they’re still zeroed in on Cassidy despite the Golden Knights’ denying them permission to speak with him.
The hiring will be consequential, given superstar Connor McDavid’s two-year contract extension begins on July 1. If the Oilers fail to improve next season, it could lead to the latter’s departure as early as next summer.
THE PROVINCE: The Vancouver Canucks officially named Daniel and Henrik Sedin as co-presidents and promoted assistant general manager Ryan Johnson as their general manager.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: No surprises here, as these hirings have been expected for days. While all three are well-respected within the organization and among Canucks fans, they have a big job ahead of them.
The Canucks are coming off one of the worst seasons in franchise history, culminating in the departure of superstar Quinn Hughes in a trade with Minnesota in December. It will take several seasons to build this club back into a playoff contender.
Their first decision could be whether to replace head coach Adam Foote, who’s been in the job for one season.
PHILLY HOCKEY NOW: Flyers general manager Daniel Briere revealed 10 players were dealing with significant injuries during their playoff run.
Emile Andrae played with a fractured wrist that requires surgery. Noah Cates fractured his foot but doesn’t need surgery. Christian Dvorak suffered a fractured rib and a separated shoulder. Garnet Hathaway played through a fractured fibula. Travis Konecny had a fractured rib and a nasal fracture. Owen Tippett dealt with internal bleeding and a sports hernia, and Cam York played through a fractured rib.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: I’ve singled out the most serious of the injuries suffered by Flyers players. One wonders how much better they might’ve fared against the Carolina Hurricanes if they had been healthier for that second-round series.
NESN: The Boston Bruins announced that assistant general manager Jamie Langenbrunner is departing to pursue other opportunities.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Langenbrunner is rumored to be heading to Vancouver to join the Canucks’ front office.
SPORTSNET: Speaking of the Bruins, they signed winger Lukas Reichel to a one-year, $950,000 contract extension.
TSN: The Chicago Blackhawks signed prospect forward Roman Kantserov to a three-year, entry-level contract.
NEW YORK POST: Former NHL defenseman Paul Boutilier has passed away at age 63. No cause of death was announced.
Boutilier spent eight seasons in the NHL with the New York Islanders, Boston Bruins, Minnesota North Stars, New York Rangers, and Winnipeg Jets from 1981-82 to 1988-89. In 288 regular-season games, he had 27 goals and 83 assists for 110 points, and 10 points in 41 playoff games. Boutilier won the Stanley Cup with the Islanders in 1982-83.
Following his playing career, Boutilier served as an assistant coach and head coach for Saint Mary’s University in Halifax from 1991 to 1997. He was an assistant coach with the QMJHL’s Saint John Sea Dogs from 2015 to 2017, helping them win the league championship in 2016-17. In 2024, he joined the QMJHL’s Moncton Wildcats as a defensive consultant, helping them win the league championship in 2025.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: My condolences to Boutilier’s family, friends, and former teammates.
so how to Leafs fans and media feel about Marner now? do they still think he is a guy who crumbles with advertsity, especially in the playoffs? shame on them for running him out of town
It seems as if Leafs fans need to have a whipping boy they single out as the cause of all their woes, going back at least to Larry Murphy. So who replaced Marner? Nylander, Rielly, or some other?
Hey mikep, the “them” you speak of, are people like yourself and media blowhards that expected Marner at 19-24 to be what he is now and constantly trying to convince fans he was a non performer when the games matter.
I can never understand fan mentality towards young, expected to be stars, self imposed trajectory time frame. Young players, no matter who they are, can’t be viewed as a finished product before they are around 25. There’s a learning curve and learning how to succeed takes time for some players, be it for the regular season or postseason.
So if you never suggested the Leafs needed to trade Marner, come on and make a comment like mikep has. If you have though and have the urge to ask something…. like that, answer it yourself.
The Canucks are pinching pennies. They should keep Foote if economics is their chief concern.
Pinching pennies? You mentioned that about Ryan Johnson yesterday, what is his new salary?
The Sedins?
Many of the 13 factors listed relate to management. Some to the coach. Some to the players. Some to bad luck. All in all the roster is top heavy. Management was responsible for some colossal screw ups. They overcorrected after coming very close to the Cup twice. But off course the coach gets the blame.
Just FYI, Hutson is second in playoff scoring among D-men. Only Quinn Hughes is ahead of him and his season is done. The next highest scoring D-man who’s still playing is at 8.
Great article in The Hockey Writers describing why Canadian teams haven’t t won the cup in quite some time. The author says it has nothing to do with taxes and everything to do with incompetence in every organization but Montreal Who is doing it the right way!
I think we can all agree the the Leafs management has done nothing to improve (other than tanking) their team for two generations.
Bettman needs to step in and fix things…..maybe relocate or rebranding?
The other thing we’ve all seen with our own eyes is that Ryan Nugent Hopkins has blown through 10 coaches since he made the Oilers roster all those years ago.
If that’s not the epitome of being a coach killer, I don’t know what is.
Obviously, they have to trade RNH! 😁😉
Nice job on the Leafs relocating SOP.
Pretty funny about the Leafs, SOP. They tanked accidently this year, in the playoffs the previous nine, poor results post season, but the Atlantic is a tough division.
Compared to the Ballard years, this is heaven.
I’d like Bettman to step into something by the way.
Plan the GM who gave him a NTC in his contract!
EDM management has made some curious decisions.
Overpaying Nurse.
Mangiapane signing then the coach didn’t play him.
Jack Campbell UFA signing.
Not matching the offer sheets for Holloway and Broberg.
Inability to identify a reliable starting goalie compounded by poor overall team defensive play.
Now their prospect pool is shallow and they have few draft picks to make.
Bowman will be in tough to improve the roster via trades. They have 11 players either UFA or RFA and $16.4M in cap space July 1. Going to take some shrewd decisions to fill out that many spots with that cap space.
Murphy will not be as cheap as he was because CHI was retaining 50% of his salary. Look for him to sign another contract around $4M annually.
This year’s UFA crop isn’t great and EDM has had troubles attracting UFA in the past. Going to be an interesting summer for the Oilers
The firing of Knoblauch may have been callously handled by Bowman – that’s undeniable – but it comes nowhere near some of these which are in a class by themselves:
On April 6, 1969, Leafs GM/Coach Punch Imlach was fired by Stafford Smythe literally minutes after a 1st-round sweep when Smythe stormed into the dressing room like a maniac;
In 1997 Ted Nolan was fired in spite of the fact he had been awarded the Jack Adams coach of the year award with the main reasons being alleged “strained relationships” with Dominik Hasek and GM GM Darcy Regier;
In 2007, after Bob Hartley coached the Atlanta Thrashers to what is now on record as their best season, including a Division championship and their first ever playoff appearance, he was unceremoniously dumped when the team went 0-6 to start the next season.
Nor was that the shortest leash ever: Red Wings owner Bruce Norris fired coach Bill Gadsby 2 games into the 1969-70 season when the team was 2-0 … after going 8-1 in pre-season – apparently because his “advisors” convinced him Gadsby was “too unsophisticated to be an NHL head coach!”
In 2001 Ivan Hlinka only lasted 4 games into the season when Pittsburgh dropped them all, Chicago did the same to legend Denis Savard when the Hawks opened 2008 by going 0-2-1. and Peter Laviolettre was canned by Philadelphia when the Flyers opened the 2013 season 0-3.
In 2008 Ottawa fired John Paddock even though he had the team solidly in 2nd place in the Conference … ostensibly because Murray thought they should be well in front … instead they folded like a cheap umbrella;
Widely hailed as “the worst firing in the history of the NHL” was the 2016 despicable termination of Gerard Gallant about 25% of the way into a season where he had the Golden Knights playing at a .500 pace (that’s about the 20-game mark and this was the season after they set a franchise record with Gallant). As if that wasn’t bad enough, he had to hail a cab on his own to take him from the arena in Carolina to the airport.
In 2018 the Capitals fired Barry Trotz not long after he coached them to their first Cup when they decided he wasn’t worth a long-term extension.
In January 2023 you would have had to have been in a coma not to know that Rick Tocchet was taking over the Vancouver Canucks from Bruce Boudreau who was being lambasted from pillar to post in his final weeks … and yet Canucks management left Boudreau dangling in the wind over that span .. that was NOT a pleasant departure.
Yep. There’s much to be said about running a pro sports franchise with ruthless efficiency … but do it with some class and decency.
Nice list, George.
Correction to the Gallant info: He was with the Panthers at the time.
Still, though, making him find his own way home was one of the most classless things I’ve ever seen by NHL management.
Right. Should have recalled that … thanks Whalerc ane
Don’t forget Al MacNeil, he was “promoted” to Nova Scotia Voyageurs right after coaching the Habs to winning a Stanley Cup (1970-71)
His team won the Calder in 1971-72
That was the playoff year in Bruins lore, Pollock was the GM and Habs were set to go on a Stanley Cup run.
Al MacNeil benched Henri Richard and got run out of town- only bilingual coaches to be hired from then on.
I think the Habs will wrap this up in six. The sabres look lost. I also think they’ll give Carolina a good run The canes have too much for the Canadiens but they are not going to steamroll over them. And I think Vegas might take the Avs to six or seven games. After signing Reichel I hope the bruins don’t get a little crazy with that extra cash in signing free agents like Arvidsson I know he had a good year but he is not worth any more than he is getting now either trade or let’s peek walk and trade Lohrei & package for something better.